- Alberta home-schooling group fires back at government report
- Edmonton-area Baptist schools defying LGBTQ rules face third-party inquiry
- Edmonton Catholic policy fails LGBTQ students, critics say
Wednesday 14 February 2018
Unicorns
Well, come on then. Before zee Germans get here.
Should drag shows be used as a teaching tool in Alberta schools?
Not according to a critic of a new LGBTQ guidebook for Alberta teachers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A Vergence, You Say...
Yoda:
Mace Windu:
Qui-Gon Jinn:
Mace Windu:
You believe it's this - boy?
Hating
The One Who Will Bring Balance to The Force
You believe it's this - boy?
Yoda:
Mace Windu:
"Yes, You Deserve to Die, and I Hope You Burn in Hell!"
Thursday 1 February 2018
Enforcing Boundaries Means Punishing The Guilty Yourself
He is another one of those said to be "difficult" to work with, especially by actors, which all contributes to The Smear Campaign.
He is some about whom they would have said, "He Doesn't Suffer Fools", although that's not a phrase I like particularly at all, personally, I just don't think it's accurate, or particularly authentic.
I'm quite fond of fools myself, personally - I enjoy their company, and I generally get along well with them, and they with me.
I just don't hire them.
And whatever else is True (and most of it is) - Kevin Spacey is certainly no fool.
If you pay someone to do something, for you, it's because you can't do it, and you recognise their superior talent or ability to do the thing you want done in the way you want it done to the standard that it needs to be done well.
If they can't do that, or don't do that, either because they prefer not to, or because circumstances or unseen factors known only to them, which they don't disclose to you when you agree to pay them and employ them, then
That is an Act of Betrayal
If they don't tell you things when you hire them that you need to know, not because they are frightened or ashamed, but because they are intending to ignore The Problem and stonewall it, hoping that it just goes away, or if they just don't give a fuck about the injury it will do to you (and many others), if they are choosing to expose you to harm, then
That is an Act of Betrayal
And if, once The Shit Hits The Fan, that person employed by you doesn't call you straight away to explain themselves, apologise for concealing The Truth, beg forgiveness, offer their support and offer to do whatever it takes to make good the damage they caused and make ammends to you personally, and to the people you've placed in the firing line by forcing them to have to suffer the misfortune of being tainted with your shit, thenThat is an Act of Betrayal
Tuesday 30 January 2018
Descartes
The Irony of Science
"I suppose, accordingly, that all the things which I see are false; fictitious. I believe that none of those objects which my fallacious memory represents ever existed; I suppose that I possess no senses; I believe that body, figure, extension, motion, and place are merely fictions of my mind. What is there, then, that can be esteemed true? Perhaps this only, that there is absolutely nothing certain. But how do I know that there is not something different altogether from the objects I have now enumerated, of which it is impossible to entertain the slightest doubt? Is there not a God, or some being, by whatever name I may designate Him, who causes these thoughts to arise in my mind? But why suppose such a Being, for it may be I myself am capable of producing them? Am I, then, at least not something? But I before denied that I possessed senses or a body; I hesitate, however, for what follows from that? Am I so dependent on the body and the senses that without these I cannot exist? But I had the persuasion that there was absolutely nothing in the world, that there was no sky and no earth, neither minds nor bodies; was I not, therefore, at the same time, persuaded that I did not exist? Far from it; I assuredly existed, since I was persuaded. But there is I know not what being, who is possessed at once of the highest power and the deepest cunning, who is constantly employing all his ingenuity in deceiving me. Doubtless, then, I exist, since I am deceived; and, let him deceive me as he may, he can never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I shall be conscious that I am something. So that it must, in fine, be maintained, all things being maturely and carefully considered, that this proposition: I am, I exist; is necessarily true each time it is expressed by me, or conceived in my mind."
~ René Descartes
Probably one of my all-time favorite philosophers, much of his work laid the foundation for modern western philosophy and set the foundation for the modern scientific method. I would also consider Descartes to be the most influential character to agnosticism. He doubted God, he doubted the objective world around him that he perceived through his senses, he even doubted he had a physical body (Hundreds of years before the invention of virtual reality!). He even doubted his own existence, until he found this was the one thing that could not be doubted, the fact that he was consciously aware of himself doubting his own existence proved he must exist! The famous phrase “Cogito Ergo Sum” otherwise known as “I think, therefore I am.” Our own conscious experience is in fact the only thing we can be certain to exist without a doubt.
Little known fact:
In 1619, while in his early twenties and serving for the Hapsburgian army, one night Descartes has a series of three dreams. In these dreams an Angel appeared to him and told him "The conquest of nature is to be achieved through measure and number." Ultimately the revelation he had from these dreams is what inspired him to persue his works.
So the foundations of modern science were based on a revelation from an angel in a dream. HA! Talk about ironic, how very rational indeed
Purgation
SALEM VILLAGE,
MASSACHUSETTS COLONY
It is Seventy-One years after The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, and England has not yet signed a formal charter.
The New World, still a wilderness frontier, has no clear governing body.
The Winters are bitterly cold, there is little food or dry wood to burn, and hostile Indians threaten this small outpost of settlers.
The only existing law is provided by the Puritan Church, which demands that individual sins be cleansed through PUBLIC HUMILIATION.
Into This World a handful of girls are about to unleash a terror so great that it will forever curse the town of Salem.
Justice
Prudence
Temperance
Fortitude
+
Faith
Hope
Charity
Monday 29 January 2018
Timon of Athens
"...that idea of The Far-Off Man, way, way out there, but what does The Hermit tell us...?
If you try this get as lonely as you can get, you become visibly aware which you can't get away from it, because when you get very lonely very fast you become extremely thin and everything that goes on is or now ordinarily unnoticed cum spiritum
And they are tremendously interested in You, and not necessarily hostile, in maybe some cases they are so.
But alone in The Forest, when you get really quiet, you'll notice little creatures will come and inspect you look you all over an
they'll go away and tell their friends and they'll come and look to see what it is and you become aware of every single sound and you realize that alone you're in the midst of a vast burning crowd - it may not be human but it's everything else - so
that the the point of being honest the discipline leads you to understand that
You can't Resign
- Alan Watts
The fabulously rich Timon believes all his friends to be as open-hearted and generous as himself. When his wealth suddenly evaporates, however, he discovers the truth and his altruism turns to a bitter hatred of mankind. Stirred up by the cynical Apemantus, Timon retreats to the woods where he plots the destruction of Athens, the city that had formerly seemed to embody everything pleasurable and civilized. The cosmic scope of his hatred is communicated in a series of powerful and disturbing dramatic tableaux.
SCENE I. Without the walls of Athens.
Enter TIMONTIMON
Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall,
That girdlest in those wolves, dive in the earth,
And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent!
Obedience fail in children! slaves and fools,
Pluck the grave wrinkled senate from the bench,
And minister in their steads! to general filths
Convert o' the instant, green virginity,
Do 't in your parents' eyes! bankrupts, hold fast;
Rather than render back, out with your knives,
And cut your trusters' throats! bound servants, steal!
Large-handed robbers your grave masters are,
And pill by law. Maid, to thy master's bed;
Thy mistress is o' the brothel! Son of sixteen,
pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire,
With it beat out his brains! Piety, and fear,
Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth,
Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood,
Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades,
Degrees, observances, customs, and laws,
Decline to your confounding contraries,
And let confusion live! Plagues, incident to men,
Your potent and infectious fevers heap
On Athens, ripe for stroke! Thou cold sciatica,
Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt
As lamely as their manners. Lust and liberty
Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth,
That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive,
And drown themselves in riot! Itches, blains,
Sow all the Athenian bosoms; and their crop
Be general leprosy! Breath infect breath,
at their society, as their friendship, may
merely poison! Nothing I'll bear from thee,
But nakedness, thou detestable town!
Take thou that too, with multiplying bans!
Timon will to the woods; where he shall find
The unkindest beast more kinder than mankind.
The gods confound--hear me, you good gods all--
The Athenians both within and out that wall!
And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow
To the whole race of mankind, high and low! Amen.
Exit
Saturday 27 January 2018
Jasmine
Uh, excuse me, Jasmine.
What can we do to show our love for you?
JASMINE
You don't have to do anything except love one another.
(smiles broadly)
Although a temple would be nice. Something massive and awe-inspiring, yet warm and nurturing, celebrating the gentle pleasures of a peaceful, precious coexistence where violent behav—
[ Because 7 of 9 is most assuredly not Anika Hansen - all later claims to the contrary notwithstanding. ]
I was no longer connected to the hive mind.
I lost many abilities that I had acquired as a drone, but I adapted.
She kept trying to help you.
By helping me discover what I could become.